บท 28: Preparing for Battle

Hours passed, and the sun was already rising on the horizon as the last soldier accompanying Minos also finally reached level 40, the beginning of the General Spiritual stage!

Since Minos and his group were going to engage in combat with Darell and his forces, he decided to impart a Silver-grade movement technique to his soldiers.

With this technique, the soldiers would be able to dodge the enemy's attacks even if their opponents were a few levels stronger than themselves. In this way, Minos hoped on giving them a better chance of winning such a fight.

However, Minos wasn't going to take unnecessary risks here. Being a graduate of the Spiritual Academy, a noble institute in the City of the Setting Sun, he was well aware of the fact that the Noble families of the Brown Kingdom could not send Spiritual Kings to protect their children throughout the world.

Therefore, Minos was confident that the enemy side's strength was limited to the General Spiritual stage. And most likely, they were also below level 45, since the trip to Stone Island was not so dangerous for people with this range of strength.

An excellent example of this is the case of merchant Elen Nash, though being a noblewoman of one of the most prominent families on Stone Island, she was accompanied by only one guard who was at level 47.

Therefore, according to Minos' calculations, the number of Darell Silva's guards should be between 2 and 4, as for their spiritual power, it should be below level 45.

'Now that they've leveled up, I'm going to buy high-level grade-1 weapons for each of them. But, unfortunately, I can't pay for anything more than that… and even if I could, it wouldn't be as if there were so many low-grade grade-2 weapons being sold around…' Minos thought to himself.

After a while, Minos met with all his soldiers and shared his plan. "Ehh, good job, everyone. Now that you've reached level 40 let's go out and get weapons for each of you since those weapons of medium-level grade-1 will not be good enough for you from now on."

He then continued seeing the excitement on their faces.

"Soon, the young master of the Silva family will come after us, so today, after we buy the weapons, we are going to leave the city and wait for them to come for us. That way, we will have an advantage at the start of the fight."

After hearing that, all ten men were both anxious and happy. That reason was obvious, they had reached a level that they might never even have dreamed of reaching and being stronger. Now they were eager to fight in order to test their newfound strengths.

After this, they would also rise to the rank of Sergeant and soon start earning twice of what they received as Corporals. This was 800 low-grade crystals, it was no less than a small fortune for anyone who had grown accustomed to the poverty of Dry City.

"Come on," Sergeant Pyke ordered the rest of the group as he led them.

…

While they made their way through the city's busy streets, Minos finally found the location where he had been appointed to go. Although Portland also has a smith's guild, many of Stone Island's specialist artisans in this field did not conduct business within the guild building.

So, after seeking the information at the Hotel Olson, Minos discovered an excellent place to buy high-level grade-1 spiritual weapons which were located in the city center.

It was a place called The Wolf's Den, a store that sold various types of spiritual weapons for grade-1.

According to the information that Minos had received, despite being a little more expensive than in other stores, the products of this store in question were of outstanding quality, in this store, there was also a large inventory available in stock, contrary to what could be seen elsewhere.

Minos and his group then stopped in front of what resembled a cave in the middle of the mountain. There was a sign with a big blank name on the store, The Wolf's Den, with that, there were also symbols of spears, swords, bows, arrows, sabers, hammers, etc.

As soon as they entered, the group noticed numerous weapons scattered all around the room.

There was also not much of a movement either, and it seemed to be less than five people were shopping at the place at that very moment.

"Good morning. I would like to see the high-level grade-1 weapons available for sale in this store." Minos asked while holding his hands behind his back.

As soon as he said that, an old man with a full beard and white hair looked over Minos and answered, "High-level grade-1 weapons, there are 17 of them that are on sale right now."

The old man then started to point to the different weapons that were visible to anyone who entered that place.

Minos saw that most of them were swords, with a few spears, sabers, and a single war hammer.

"Choose your weapons," Minos said as he looked at the ten men around him.

When he heard this, the old man looked at Minos with surprise. He would never have expected this young man to actually be buying weapons of such a level for his subordinates!

Although these types of weapons were unsuitable for people in the 5th stage of cultivation, it was widespread for people in this northern region of the Central Continent to wield weapons that were one or two levels below their cultivation level.

'This young man must have a great force behind him to spend so much on his subordinates.' The old man thought while scratching his beard.

After a while, Minos' soldiers were done choosing their weapons; there were five swords, three spears, one saber, and one war hammer among the preferred weapons.

The old man then spoke with an indifferent expression on his face, "For these ten weapons, the total price is 59,000 low-grade crystals."

Minos nodded and immediately paid for the crystals and then asked him, "Sir, I will soon be out hunting, and I want to trap my prey. Can you tell me a good place that sells spiritual arrays here in Portland?"

A knowing smile appeared on the old man's face as he answered, "Oh! So you plan to hunt, hehe. I have a friend who is an array master, his store is 300 meters from here. You just have to follow this same street. The name of the store is Burton's Alley."

After hearing this, Minos thanked the old man and moved on along with his group.

It didn't take long for him and his men to arrive at the store that the old man had talked about.

This place was completely different from the previous store, it looked like a square box which was completely black and there was a green light with a name.

Burton's Alley

After a while, Minos walked out of the store. He had bought a high-level grade-1 spiritual array from here, one which specialized in stunning those below level 40 for a whole 30 seconds and decreasing the strength, slowing down the speed of those above this level. But, of course, the stronger the enemy was, the lesser the array's effect on them would be.

Minos had spent 22,000 low-grade crystals on this array. And after leaving the store, he and his group left the city and went to a mountainous region that was a few kilometers away.

…

Meanwhile, in the hotel where the Silva family's young master was staying, two men watched the view of Portland from the balcony of their room. On the other hand, the young Darell was busy eating his breakfast quietly.

At that moment, Protector Philip entered the room with a wide smile on his face. In order to find the location of their targets, he had left the previous night.

"Young master, I already have obtained the location of those pests."

"Oh! That's great. Where is he?" Darell asked with a trace of excitement in his eyes.

"Earlier today, the brat and his group were staying at the Hotel Olson, but they went out shopping early. First to a blacksmith's shop and then an array master.

After that, they left the city in the direction of the northwest. We can follow their trail from there. So, there are not many ways for them to escape us, hehe," Protector Philip replied with a satisfied expression.

For him, such a behavior of Minos and his group did not differ from that of giving up their own lives. They were basically leaving a safe place, where it would be challenging to kill someone in daylight, and were going to a place where no one would even know if they killed each other or were killed by something or someone...

"Haha, those guys are only making it easier for us. I want to see their faces when they are surprised by us," Darell laughed before a grin appeared on his face while he added.

"Come on. I can't wait to get my hands on my new sword, hehe."